Current Events

Hi folks,
There won’t be a Grandpa’s Letters post today or for the rest of the week. There are a few reasons for this. For one, I still feel like it is important for me to step aside and let other people talk at the moment. If you haven’t read them, I think Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama both put out eloquent, essential statements supporting what the George Floyd protests are about (i.e., they’re not just about George Floyd). Of course, there are many others out there with important things to say as well. Since Grandpa’s Letters aren’t going anywhere, I’ll save them for a slightly quieter week.

In addition to that, I need to take a breather from my current pace. I wrote the last several entries during the first three weeks or so of the quarantine, back when no one knew what was happening and many of us were afraid to leave our homes. Now that we’ve settled somewhat into this new normal (I still miss escaping to the local coffee shop to read), I’ve been working on – and have now just about finished – a new online United States History since 1865 class that includes a lot of new programming and material (you can actually check out the syllabus here, which I’ve posted for students who cannot access it via the school). Between that and finishing the spring semester grading, I have not had a great deal of time to start the next big research portion of this project, which is the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Since I want to provide as much context as possible when I start going through those letters, I have a lot of reading to do in the weeks ahead.

Here’s what I have in mind: during the next two weeks I will post the August and September 1945 updates, along with a couple of other posts I’ve been working on. Then I will take a break from the Grandpa’s Letters for a few weeks (I have a lot of things to say about the move to online-only education and our rapidly expanding garden) and pick it back up after July 4th. At that point I will start posting Grandpa’s Letters updates regularly again, probably once a week, along with book reviews.

There’s one other really big reason for why I’m slowing it down . . . we’re approaching the end of the line! I only have 14 months’ worth of letters left until Elmer is mustered out and sent back home. I am sad that this journey is coming to its climax pretty soon and that much of the remaining work of finishing the book will be the usual solitary labor of historical research, writing, and editing. It may sound hackneyed by now, but it really has been a privilege getting to know my grandparents throughout this project.

I don’t want “Grandpa’s Letters” to be the last time I do this. I would like to keep this blog growing, and I already have a few “next project” ideas that I’m beginning to explore for early 2021. In the meantime, there is much to be excited about . . . for instance, I’m planning to celebrate the publication of Never Caught Twice with a lot of horse stealing stories, artifacts, and maybe even some videos. I am also going to try to contextualize it a bit with some Western history posts and book reviews. Stay tuned!

Finally, thank you as always for reading and for all the feedback you’ve given me over these past few months. I sincerely hope that you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy, and that a better world for all of us is just around the corner.

ML

Hi folks,
In general my policy is to keep this space – particularly the Grandpa’s Letters blog – as free from politics and current events as possible. As a historian, one of my goals is to tell stories that bring Americans together, while also telling the truth – however unsparing – about our past.

However, the protests and riots last few days demand that we all think about and contend with some harsh realities. Many of those realities are historically well-documented: that people of color and black men specifically face the disproportionate burden of aggressive and militarized policing in this country; that mass incarceration and “tough on crime” policies overwhelmingly affect people of color and poor Americans; and that eliminating racism is about more than just changing hearts and minds, it is about dismantling larger social, economic, and political structures (which we might not even be consciously aware of) that perpetuate inequality.

My heart goes out to George Floyd’s family, and to all of the families of those who have been killed under similar circumstances. And while I believe the time for change is long overdue, I am hopeful that peaceful protests, community activism, and growing public awareness of and engagement with these issues will make this particular event a watershed moment in the history of our country.

So, in lieu of one of my usual blog posts, I’m instead going to link to three pieces that I believe are particularly important for spaces like this, in which Democrats and Republicans and Independents and people of all shapes and stripes and colors (I hope) co-mingle out of a shared love for history. Please read and reflect, and, if you would like, leave a comment below.

“Op-Ed: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Don’t understand the protests? What you’re seeing is people pushed to the edge,” Los Angeles Times, 30 May 2020. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, one of America’s most legendary sports figures, is also a fantastic writer. Please check out what he has to say about what’s happening.

Jim Bovard, “Cops Kill Because We Gave Them the Legal Framework to do it,” The American Conservative, 30 May 2020. So, now that we know what the problem is, what are some concrete steps for what to do next? Personally, I believe that police and criminal justice reform is one of the few bipartisan issues left. Both parties have an interest in demilitarizing police, minimizing the impact of law enforcement and law in general on our everyday lives, and keeping good people out of jail. Although there are naturally a wide range of solutions to this problem, I think this set of reforms as proposed by a prominent conservative publication are a great place to start thinking about them.

Kelly Vanessa Porter, “The Story of Doris Miller and What It Means to be An American Hero,” Medium.com, 22 May 2020. Finally, the story of Doris Miller is one I have not told on this blog, but this article does a far better job than I would have – and it is a great reminder for me that I need to include it in the book. It is also a reminder that even Miller, an American hero who died in the service of his country, still regularly battled racism at home in the country he was fighting to protect.

Finally, if anyone is looking for a concrete way to help without using their money to sanction or condone violence, consider donating to Campaign Zero. Their goal is to reduce and eventually eliminate police violence using smart public policy backed up by social science. You can donate here: https://www.paypal.me/campaignzero

As always, thank you for reading and for spending a few minutes of your time here today. Be safe and be well.

Tag: Current Events

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